Resident Sleepy Artist

Adult | She/they You are loved, always remember that. ;) <3

[saltygarlic]

Proud to say that I had the honor this year of designing an outfit for Crystal in this year’s annual Specord Gala!! I had way too much fun with her this time, seeing as I made an extra piece due to me being enamored with LED light capes on Pinterest…

[lycankeyy-moved]

What are your pokespe gold thoughts

Stares at you with my autistic eyes . I have too many as Gold is probably the character I think about the most aside from Green and Red and he was our Longest Had Blorbo so . I will pick some thoughts out of a hat

Okay first of all it has been A While since I read all the way through gsc so if I say anything the second half of that arc contradicts what i say um . Aheem heem whimper .

Anyway something I see said about Gold a lot is that he's an inconsistent/weirdly written character. I have Thoughts about this.

A theory I have is that the reason why Gold's characterization is the way it is is basically "Pokémon GSC was supposed to be the last Pokémon games, so the pokespe team thought GSC was going to be the last arc". The arc was probably mostly written and half-published by the time Ruby and Sapphire started development, and I think this accounts for a lot of the "weirdness" GSC is usually associated with. The extent of stakes, the writing decisions and all that all make sense for a manga that wanted to end with a high-stakes fight and assumed these characters would never be returned to again. Buuut that second part obviously didn't happen LMAO

I think what we have with Gold is character that was written to be a one-arc protag and eventually had to be molded to fit a larger role in a much larger story. Gold wasn't really the emotional core of GSC, Silver was (and Crys for a bit), and Gold acted as Silver's (and Pryce's, later) foil. In fact Gold doesn't really have a lot going for him aside from "the opposite of Silver and/or Pryce" until towards the end of GSC, and by the time the arc is over, he doesn't really... have a reason to be Silver's foil anymore? And I think that's what throws people off a bit. Gold becomes substantially more fleshed out in his later appearances, but I think this next part is where people get especially tripped up.

Compared to Silver, Gold doesn't have an incredibly deep Character Motivation. His surface-level motivation is wanting to kick Silver's and eventually Pryce's ass, but beyond that, he initially doesn't have much; until around the end of GSC, where his deeper character motivation is revealed to be insecurity. But I think to some people this reads as odd, because Gold was not originally written to seem insecure. The earliest possible hint we get of this - him being insulted when Professor Oak won't give him a pokédex - reads less like he's insecure and desperate to prove himself and more like he's angry he's not being handed what he wants on a silver platter. There's some hint there that he there might be some level of pride involved, but he seems like a generally prideful person. So from a critical perspective, it might be a bit hard to understand how we got from that to this

"I must have something, don't I? Something to be proud of?!"

Or this;

After spending the whole arc talking about how Gold and Togetaro are practically twins and heavily implying that Gold is projecting onto Togetaro. These are very clear indications that Gold does not believe he's as capable as he claims to think, that he's desperate to prove himself and needs external validation.

If you ask me, this character trait suddenly being taken much more seriously is a result of the shift of Kusaka realizing Spe was going to be going on for much longer than originally thought, and these characters were not going away any time soon. Gold needed some semblance of actual motivation, and I believe this was chosen because it helps him fit in with the other two Johto dexholders, who both hold themselves to impossibly high standards. Gold craves to be the hero, to be universally popular, to receive all the attention and admiration he can get out of people, and that all being because he craves validation makes sense - but since it's hard to believe this was originally what was in mind for his character, where this comes from is unclear. Silver and Crys are both obvious results of their respective upbringings, but Gold is implied to have had a really happy childhood. Some people can extrapolate that his mother might be neglectful based on the joke that he gets his carefree attitude from her, but I think that's a stretch. On an analytical level, I highly doubt that's how it's supposed to be taken, and I doubt we're meant to think about it as hard as we do Silver or Crystal's pasts.

It is interesting to think about, though! I thoroughly enjoy Gold angst and h/c, if it wasn't obvious, and I like hearing other peoples' headcanons on the matter.

... hopefully that was enough thoughts for you! LMFAO

[lycankeyy-moved]

What are your pokespe gold thoughts

Stares at you with my autistic eyes . I have too many as Gold is probably the character I think about the most aside from Green and Red and he was our Longest Had Blorbo so . I will pick some thoughts out of a hat

Okay first of all it has been A While since I read all the way through gsc so if I say anything the second half of that arc contradicts what i say um . Aheem heem whimper .

Anyway something I see said about Gold a lot is that he's an inconsistent/weirdly written character. I have Thoughts about this.

A theory I have is that the reason why Gold's characterization is the way it is is basically "Pokémon GSC was supposed to be the last Pokémon games, so the pokespe team thought GSC was going to be the last arc". The arc was probably mostly written and half-published by the time Ruby and Sapphire started development, and I think this accounts for a lot of the "weirdness" GSC is usually associated with. The extent of stakes, the writing decisions and all that all make sense for a manga that wanted to end with a high-stakes fight and assumed these characters would never be returned to again. Buuut that second part obviously didn't happen LMAO

I think what we have with Gold is character that was written to be a one-arc protag and eventually had to be molded to fit a larger role in a much larger story. Gold wasn't really the emotional core of GSC, Silver was (and Crys for a bit), and Gold acted as Silver's (and Pryce's, later) foil. In fact Gold doesn't really have a lot going for him aside from "the opposite of Silver and/or Pryce" until towards the end of GSC, and by the time the arc is over, he doesn't really... have a reason to be Silver's foil anymore? And I think that's what throws people off a bit. Gold becomes substantially more fleshed out in his later appearances, but I think this next part is where people get especially tripped up.

Compared to Silver, Gold doesn't have an incredibly deep Character Motivation. His surface-level motivation is wanting to kick Silver's and eventually Pryce's ass, but beyond that, he initially doesn't have much; until around the end of GSC, where his deeper character motivation is revealed to be insecurity. But I think to some people this reads as odd, because Gold was not originally written to seem insecure. The earliest possible hint we get of this - him being insulted when Professor Oak won't give him a pokédex - reads less like he's insecure and desperate to prove himself and more like he's angry he's not being handed what he wants on a silver platter. There's some hint there that he there might be some level of pride involved, but he seems like a generally prideful person. So from a critical perspective, it might be a bit hard to understand how we got from that to this

"I must have something, don't I? Something to be proud of?!"

Or this;

After spending the whole arc talking about how Gold and Togetaro are practically twins and heavily implying that Gold is projecting onto Togetaro. These are very clear indications that Gold does not believe he's as capable as he claims to think, that he's desperate to prove himself and needs external validation.

If you ask me, this character trait suddenly being taken much more seriously is a result of the shift of Kusaka realizing Spe was going to be going on for much longer than originally thought, and these characters were not going away any time soon. Gold needed some semblance of actual motivation, and I believe this was chosen because it helps him fit in with the other two Johto dexholders, who both hold themselves to impossibly high standards. Gold craves to be the hero, to be universally popular, to receive all the attention and admiration he can get out of people, and that all being because he craves validation makes sense - but since it's hard to believe this was originally what was in mind for his character, where this comes from is unclear. Silver and Crys are both obvious results of their respective upbringings, but Gold is implied to have had a really happy childhood. Some people can extrapolate that his mother might be neglectful based on the joke that he gets his carefree attitude from her, but I think that's a stretch. On an analytical level, I highly doubt that's how it's supposed to be taken, and I doubt we're meant to think about it as hard as we do Silver or Crystal's pasts.

It is interesting to think about, though! I thoroughly enjoy Gold angst and h/c, if it wasn't obvious, and I like hearing other peoples' headcanons on the matter.

... hopefully that was enough thoughts for you! LMFAO

[saltygarlic]

I was in charge of designing Erika for Special Gala 2023! I don’t usually post here, but I thought I’d share because I am quite proud of how this turned out. :3

[saltygarlic]

I haven’t used this Tumblr in ages so I thought I’d use it for a bit of a project.

I found some documents of an old Pokespe OC plotline that I wrote years ago so if I wrote a fan manga out of it, would anyone be interested? 

Some parts are probably going to be quite cringe but I want an excuse to practice drawing. XD